As we launch our new ISISA website, I welcome you back to a renewed and revitalized ISISA blog - one in which I invite contributions from all of you.

As Editor, I envision this being a meeting place for those of us who happen to live on or study islands. I invite stories and news from your islands all around the globe. I invite editorials and rants, opinions and profiles, celebrations and research, island adventure stories and travelogues – and even gossip that’s too good not to share. Do you have questions or comments about island studies meetings or research projects or conferences – past and upcoming? Do you have some thoughts about a movie or documentary you’ve seen, or a book or an article you’ve read – for instance, maybe a paper in the latest issue of Island Studies Journal or Shima? Perhaps you’re doing a literature search or looking for potential research collaborators – let us know. This space is for you.

I welcome writing from all disciplines: geography, biology, sociology, culture, economy, governance, food, literature, music, art, anthropology, archaeology, language, tourism, and areas I haven’t even thought about… let’s get some good chat going and make this a place for sharing ideas and happenings and knowledge.

I’m looking for scholarly writing for a popular audience, and popular writing for a scholarly audience. Short fiction, memoir, and poetry are welcome, too. Pieces can be up to 1,000 words, and can include photos and links to other websites and blogs.

If you want to write a post, or if you want to bounce an idea around, send it along to brinklow@upei.ca. I may or may not edit it. (But be forewarned: I AM an inveterate editor!) If the post is unsuitable for our audience, I will reject it.

And in the meantime, watch your in-boxes. I already have ideas for posts, and I’ll be knocking on your (metaphorical) door!

This space is for linking our islands, and our thoughts about islands. It’s like the oceans that join us together, ebbing and flowing and creating crosscurrents and undertows, with our words like little boats – let’s keep them afloat!

On behalf of the ISISA Executive, and all of us here at the Institute of Island Studies at University of Prince Edward Island, in Charlottetown, Canada, I wish all you a Happy New Year! Hope our paths cross on some island or another in 2016.

Laurie Brinklow, BA, MA(IS), PhD

Editor, ISISA blog
Executive member, ISISA
Co-ordinator, Institute of Island Studies
University of Prince Edward Island
Tel. (902) 894-2881
E-mail: brinklow@upei.ca
Website: http://projects.upei.ca/iis/